Toy Story, Kangaroos, and American Religion

http://scienceblog.com/61109/what-kangaroos-can-tell-us-about-walking-upright/

http://scienceblog.com/61101/americans-and-religion-increasingly-parting-ways-new-survey-shows/

There a way too many cool sounding articles on scienceblog. I am not sure what the difference in hind leg structure of bipedals versus quadrupedals will tell us, other than they are different because the forces are different. However, I do know that statistics about Americans and religion are not big news anymore. The more interesting question there is why?

However, the most interesting of the evening is an unanswered hole from the Toy Story Trilogy: who poisoned the water hole?

And why? Anyone know?

Uniqueness is Proveable

I don't know about you, but I love the xkcd comic. Even more I love his what if weekly blog where people send in questions and he searches for an answer and shows a bunch of the steps he took to find an answer. The ridiculous things that come up with physics and imagination. I wanted to write about it today because he uses some fun mathematics and also because I have been thinking about the phenomena of Twitter. The question today is "How many unique English tweets are possible? How long would it take for the population of the world to read them all out loud?" And to put the answer in perspective, he incorporates the old story about the bird sharpening its beak on a mountain and wearing the mountain down to show how long is a day of eternity. You may remember my own thoughts on eternity here last year. Eternity is heady stuff. The answer to the first question is effectively never. The calculation shows that it would take 'ten thousand eternal years' to read it all out loud. Long enough to get bored with it all. Although the creativity of humanity, and especially those speaking the English language, is just ludicrous enough for you perhaps not to get bored all that time. Yesterday in theology class we were talking about the image of God in humanity and how historically what is considered to be the image of God in humanity has changed through rationality, creativity, and community. I wondered, out loud even, if perhaps since God could be described as so many things, that every human has something different as the image of God within them. Interesting idea for theology perhaps. Apparently because of the definite article which has always been used in talking about the image of God, there can only be one thing amongst all of us. However, since the phrase comes from the Old Testament, I am going to look it up in Hebrew. Why does everyone have to be made in the same image of God? We are all very different people. I will have to think more about it. Uniqueness can be proven mathematically in some areas. I think it is amazing how we are all unique. 

Psychology of Giving and Other Stuff

http://ucresearch.tumblr.com/post/43085813026/if-your-valentines-day-is-less-than-ideal-dont

I am thoroughly enjoying getting to explore scienceblog.com. It is helping me feel more connected to the world while here in seminary without having to watch or look at the news and feel depressed about all the bad things being reported. I do care about the bad stuff that is happening in the world, and it is now very close by with the internet, however I do not need to be depressed about it all everyday. I would like to be able to think that there is good stuff going on in the world every day. I know there is. Good stuff happens in my life, so it has to happen in others' lives too. That is one reason I am liking exploring the science. There are good and bad things going on in science and obviously people are passionate about these things. Passion makes life more vivid. I really enjoyed the comic above, not because I have broken up ever, but because of how the science was easy, accessible, funny, and makes you feel better. Your hat is awesome. Especially if someone who puts you down regularly speaks against it, as a general rule. And speaking of people who build you up versus people who put you down, I also read this article: http://scienceblog.com/60480/in-rich-and-poor-nations-giving-makes-people-feel-better-than-getting/ about how people feel better after buying something for someone else rather than for themselves. It is really funny in a culture that highlights and emphasizes retail therapy and buying stuff for oneself, that we actually feel better when we buy stuff for other people. Even more interestingly enough, people across the world have the same feeling when it comes to buying stuff for other people. How great! We should spend more of our money on others and making sure other people have what they need as well as ourselves. Sadly, as the person who commented pointed out, this does not work in some situations. We do not feel the same way about giving part of our money to the government or other organizations who will then buy stuff for the poor themselves. I wonder if it also has to do with the reception. One of the reasons I was turned down from a summer mission trip to Panama was that I would not be able to eat the food the poorer folks I would be working with would try to feed me. I was slightly appalled when I read that the trip planners allow the volunteers to eat the food of the poor. However, I know how hospitality works. When you invite someone into your house, you like to be able to offer them something. I have myself gotten told off for being rude for bringing my own food into other people's houses, even when they know that they cannot adequately feed me without making me sick. I get stuck in that catch twenty two frequently. Most people just then shy away from inviting me into their homes. It works. The feeling of being able to give something to someone else, to share what we have, to provide for someone is powerful. Psychology and science may link it to the evolutionary needs of humanity. Humans helping humans probably will allow the species to live longer than us always cutting each other throats. Religion will link it to the gifts of God. I think both are true. Loving one's neighbor is sometimes easier than you might think.